What exactly is a “proprietary blend” wine?   It certainly sounds fancy and depending on the marketing, it could be intimidating.  The wine means simply what the word implies:  this is a winemaker’s own special blend of either red or white grapes to make a wine that he or she believes unique enough to have marketable legs with the general public.   Depending on the grapes used and depending on from which vineyards they hail, a proprietary blended wine could be quite expensive.  A savvy vintner however will realize that when making a blended wine that there is the unique opportunity to hedge the cost of the higher quality fruit by incorporating more affordable blending grapes and make the wine accessible to the average consumer.   If the winemaker is truly talented, the wine will not only be affordable but will instill the consumer with a feeling of empowerment in that he or she will feel that they have acquired something very special for a price within his or her budget.

The Wagner Family (yes, those same Wagners behind Caymus) sell a fun white proprietary blend wine made by Jon Bolta called “Conundrum”.    Each vintage involves a different blend of white wine grapes grown in various vineyards and AVAs in California and sometimes they are exposed to oak, sometimes American, sometimes new French and sometimes no oak at all.   Even though the blend varies each year and is kept under tight secretive key, there is a consistency to this wine so that no matter the vintage you can pull it from the shelf of your local distributor and find very close similarities and the equally fun game of trying to pinpoint and guess year after year exactly what is it that you are tasting.  In a simple glass you can taste a range of fruit from tropical to apricot, green apple, pear, peach, melon and a hint of citrus.  You will find a dash of minerality, a round mouth feel often accompanying Roussane or Chardonnay, a spritz sometimes associated with Muscat.   The blend is simply fun and due to its varying varietal combinations, it keeps the palate guessing but similarly becomes a siren for food or cheese pairings.   For depending on what you put with the Conundrum White Proprietary Blend you will coax out various white wine grapes that just might give you a closer hint as to what is in the wine.

As you can already imagine, with such ability to pair with a wide variety or cuisine, it can similarly pair across the seasons of the year and become such a different wine depending on the climate and the season in which it finds itself served.   During spring (or during the warm weeks leading up to the official arrival of the season as we are having in California), the home garden is welcomed daily by various vegetables that have waited all winter to jump forth from the soil.  It seemed like only a week ago that I was privately lamenting that I did not have any asparagus yet in the garden and then over the weekend not only did I suddenly have asparagus but it was growing at an astronomical rate … as if like the rest of the U.S., it could no longer wait for the official arrival of spring.

From a culinary perspective, asparagus is its freshest in the spring.  It is extremely tender and very sweet.  It is so sweet that it can be eaten raw.  If you are able to purchase it at your farmer’s market or even better, harvest it from your own garden, you will have the opportunity to experience this vegetable not only at its freshest but at its sweetest.  It is during this early window of seasonality that the home chef has the opportunity to experience this deliciously sweet delicate vegetable as a flavorful raw salad that your guests will not texturally anticipate.

Seafood is a natural easy pairing with most white wines and adding shrimp to a raw asparagus shaved salad makes an easy pairing with Conundrum Proprietary White Wine.   To dress the salad, a seasonal Meyer lemon vinaigrette is created to whisk away any residual briny flavor from the shrimp and immediately invokes thoughts of ceviche.  The vinaigrette involves lemon zest, Meyer lemon juice, shallot, minced bits of asparagus, lemon thyme and white wine vinegar.  Adding minced fresh cantaloupe (which also begins to come into season in the spring) enlivens and adds an additional component of sweetness balanced by some chopped chives from the garden.

With this salad, there is no bitterness in it at all. It refreshes and gives one a feeling of seasonal sustainability.   If you have been craving seasonal vegetables all winter long, this simple salad is your easy tribute to spring.